Houston County Courier - Local News
Copyright 2013 - Polk County Publishing Company

Sims family gets treat of a lifetimeHouston County Courier

The Sims family received the treat of a lifetime Thursday at ETMC Crockett with the arrival of a baby boy at 5:44 a.m. Christefer Cruz Bell, son of Tammy Sims, was delivered by Dr. Craig McMullen. McMullen said this is the third time he has had a baby delivered at ETMC Crockett on Halloween during his seven years of practice there. "I have delivered babies at ETMC Crockett on several holidays including Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, New Year's, Mother's Day and Father's Day, but this is the third time I delivered one on Halloween," he said. ETMC Crockett Administrator Terry Cutler presented the family with a specially framed $2 bill to mark the occasion. "Many families, including our ETMC Crockett family, commemorate special events with $2 bills and we felt the Sims family would enjoy sharing this special memento with Christefer when he is older," Cutler said. The Level 1 Birthing Center opened at ETMC Crockett in 2002 and through 2012 some 2,303 babies entered the world in one of the five state-of-the art labor and delivery rooms in the facility. According to statistics, the number of births at ETMC Crockett have fluctuated, but a state trend indicates a decline overall in births over the past several years. Crockett has shown a marked increase. There were about 112 births in Houston County in 1995 and that number has increased and decreased over the past 20 years but settled at 227 births at ETMC Crockett in 2012. According to Kids Count Data Center, births in the state steadily declined between 2007 and 2011.